Thursday, March 1, 2012

Morning Tidbits

Thanks to Audrey Silk for posting this on Facebook via NYC Clash-

This hostility towards a minority by a majority would be roundly condemned if we were talking about a racial or religious group, but what makes it all the more worrying is that this behaviour has been encouraged and even whipped up by government policy.

Yep, hatred and self-righteousness is alive and well in the civilized world. I am, at the very least, grateful to those who speak out against hatred by calling it what it is. If you see its beastly head casting its misery about, stand up to it before it turns into an even larger monster.

In other news, we learn that there are some (ok, we already new this) who appear to harbor the notion that collective relativism trumps that of our constitutional right to free speech.

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration has said that the public interest in conveying the dangers of smoking outweighs the companies' free speech rights.

Yep, you have read that right: someone actually said this...In America...In fact, it would be disturbing enough to hear of these words coming from that of an individual; but no, this radical position came from that of an entire agency, one that is paid for by we the people! For what could be of so much importance that it should take precedence over the very documents with which this country was founded upon? Why, public health, of course!

We're too stupid to make decisions for ourselves, so we must be force-fed whatever message that the Neo-Bishops of (Counter) Do-Gooderism deem to be appropriate, which is ultimately for the benefit of their shareholders. However, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon has taken the position that the U.S. Constitution takes precedence over that of rogue and impulsive activists who wish to impose their message upon others:

The Epidemiological Evidence for Less Hazardous Cigarettes

"The justification for less hazardous or virtually safe cigarettes derives directly from epidemiologic studies. All studies that have linked cigarette smoking with various diseases have also noted that the risks increase with the number of cigarettes smoked daily, with the intensity of inhalation, with how much of a cigarette is smoked, whether the cigarette is filtered or not, and with other features that define the amount, i.e. the DOSE, of smoke inhaled" Dr. Gori-Virtually Safe Cigarettes